Banani rape ordeal: an untold story

Banai’s rapist Shafat had a pistol pointed at the first victim. He had hissed, “Now, do you know what this is?” And it was backed up with vehemently obscene language. Whore, prostitute and amongst other profane words. Rapist Naim Ashraf meanwhile was punching and pummelling the victims without reprieve. They wanted only one thing, the victims would have to have “sex” with them.

There were three girls and a boy. All of them had arrived to attend Shafat’s birthday party. All four of them were told that there would be a 100 or so people present there. But they saw no one when they arrived…nothing when they arrived…

The son of that very same mother who nurtured Shafat in her womb for 10 months, wanted to celebrate his 26th birthday by raping two girls. And that was what Shafat, Naim and Shadman had planned. And throughout the whole ordeal, Shadman had played the role of the pimp.

Apart from them there were also rapist Shafat, rapist Naim Ashraf and rapist Shadman Sakif. The boy who’d accompanied the three victims to the party pled and begged the rapists multiple times to let them go. He’d held on to Naim’s feet asking him for mercy. Cried and screamed.

Not only did the rapists ignore his pleas, they heckled him. They kicked him away, punched him, and slapped him.

One of the two plaintiffs grabbed on to both Naim and Shafat’s feet and begged for mercy. Brother please let this girl go.

But rapist Naim was not going to let go that easily. He croaked, “Then why don’t you join in”. After which he took the girl room no.702 where he began torturing her. Similarly Shafat dragged away another one of the victims. They tortured both the girls all night. At one point one of them grabbed a hold Shafat’s feet. “Brother please have mercy I beg you…please”

But Shafat snarled like an animal and screamed. “You sons of a bitches, you fucking whores, harlots didn’t you lot say that you do not want sleep, that do not wan’t to come!!! Look at what I’ve done to you now”

Amidst all that two waiters from Raintree popped in to check if everything was running smoothly or not. While Shafat’s bodyguard Abul Kalam Azad stood outside. Guarding everything like a hawk.

Shafat continued to scream, “What you think my father is a nobody? He sells gold…gold. Where do you think all that gold from the airports in this country goes? Where does it come from? Everything is under my father’s control. Nobody would ever even notice if I cut up one or two like you, and then cast them out into the water.”

Meanwhile screams emanated from the other room. Naim Ashraf was abusing the other victim. Screams…tears…pleas. While the whole incident was being administrated by Shadman Sakif.

Once they’d grown tired of raping them, the rapists then started kicking the boy who’d travelled with the victims. They offered, “why don’t you go inside and do it as well”. The boy instead retreated to a corner in the room as tears flowed from him in pain and shame.

The girl told me, “Brother, you don’t know how many times I’ve contemplated death after this incident. How many times I thought of just running away. But I couldn’t brother. At one point I thought that the militants of Artisan were better than them. At least the militants killed everyone. Here they have sucked the life out of us through shame and disgrace. We are dead even though we are alive. I have nightmares every night from which I wake up in tears. But I find myself incapable of sharing it with anyone. Both of us we talk about it over the phone, and then we cry again”

“Meanwhile one of them called us one day and told us that a video recording of the incident that day, has been released on the internet.” They said, “Now you whores are on our payroll. You will come whenever we call you.”

One day Shafat’s bodyguard Abul Kalam Azad paid a visit to one of the victim’s houses, which scared everyone present inside the household. Slowly things began to unravel. The proposition was, either become Naim and Shafat’s “bed mates”, or this video will go viral.”

At one point the victims wanted to come to a mutual understanding with the rapists. For that the victims sought out the help of the elder brothers of both rapists. The elder brothers complied and lobbied the rapists. But both rapists Shafat and Naim bared their teeth in gleeful laughter. Shafat offered, “So do you wanna marry us baby?” and started laughing right in front of the brothers. They couldn’t come to any agreement at all.

At one point one of the two victims found her voice and in a rush of blood, rage and adrenaline. She told the other victims, I will go to the police. I will take whatever is in my fate. Living like this is impossible.

Before they did that, one of the victims found out that Shafat has a wife. So they decided to seek her out before going to the police. And one of them did manage to find Piyasha, Shafat’s wife, but apparently Shafat and Piyasha had a divorce on the 8th of March.

One of the victims begged and pleaded Piyasha. “Sister please come with us to the police station.” Piyasha did oblige on the first day, on behest of those two helpless girls, but she constantly warned them that as appalling as those two men maybe, their fathers are much worse. Especially Dildar, Shafat’s father. The biggest gold smuggler in the capital. Piyasha only accompanied them, to the station for the first day.

After that, OC Forman Ali and investigative officer Motin staved them off for three straight days. OC Forman meanwhile had a lot of advice for the victims in this matter such as, what good will come of this…go home…you won’t be able to get married if this thing goes public…they are influential…if you get in trouble at this age you will never be able to achieve anything etc.

At one point the victims and their mother camped at the police station on defiance. The police station finally approved the case. Forman and investigative officer Motin tried everything in the book to dismiss it.

Now it is 4:00 AM in the morning in London. I haven’t slept. I couldn’t sleep. My head, my mind was swarmed by the desperate please of that girl. Brother…please…will you tell the Prime Minister abut this. She is a woman…perhaps she will understand…

My eyes welled up…but I didn’t let them realise it…. What if my sisters break down even more if they see tears in the eyes of their brother…